Well done to Paul, Lou and Jorja for completely smashing their £500 fundraising target for Swindon and Wiltshire Mind by £903.20! They raised £1,403.20.
Thank you to everyone who went to see the lights and donated to this very worthy cause.
The family said “Thank you so so much to every single person who visited us, donated to Mind and generally supported us throughout the whole of 2021 in one way or another.
A massive thank you for all the love and support, as always and for the help with getting the light show seen and noticed the last two years and for helping us drive up traffic on socials by sharing to We Are Swindon!”.
See you next year for more amazing charity fundraising to help charities that support the people of Swindon.
Festive Charity Lights in Swindon. Last Christmas we were really pleased to be able to help the Scriver family by promoting their Christmas light display far and wide to help them raise over £650 for Children in Need (see bottom of the page for more on this). This year we’re doing the same because Paul, Lou and Jorja have pulled out all stops to fundraise for Swindon and Gloucestershire Mind.
They have chosen this local charity because sadly earlier in the year a friend of Paul’s tragically took his own life due to a decline in his mental health. It is suspected that this was made worse by the pandemic.
Fundraising in memory of a friend.
Paul had built up a really good friendship with this friend because he too had a daughter with special needs. Together they shared stories about their girls. When he took his own life, it was a shock to everyone because he always seemed so happy.
The Scriver family want to help raise money for this mental health charity because they believe that the money is really needed to help other people. They’re also aware that the mental health of the nation is at an all-time low, and needs support.
The fundraising began in October 2021 when they had a Halloween light display.
It raised £224 towards their £500 goal.
“Last year we raised over £650 for BBC’s Children in need, but this year we’d love to smash that amount for Mind because it is extremely close to our hearts, and nearly everyone has either seen a decline in or knows of someone who has seen a decline in their mental health, so the more money that we can raise for our local branch of Mind will go towards supporting people here in Swindon and Gloucestershire that is currently going through a dark patch
If our donations only help support one person then that could be one person less who takes their own life, and that is a marvellous achievement”..”
All their hard work means they deserve to reach their charity fundraising target.
The Scriver family have worked hard on the PLJ Light shows and it’s all for charity. They work on it throughout the year and pay for the lights, the props, the electric and any goodies that are given out to children, when possible, is all funded from their own pockets. They give 100% of the donations collected (either by cash at the display or via their Just Giving page) to charity.
A lot of people think that the big screen is a TV. It’s actually a panel of thousands of tiny LEDs.
How many pixels? competition.
Know a thing or two about pixel displays? Or just feeling lucky? You can enter the Scriver family pixel competition. Guess the number of pixels that they’ve used throughout their display. Fill in a competition slip available at the display and post it into the locked postbox.
The nine closest guesses will be picked at random to win one of the prizes that have been donated by local businesses.
- Entry for 1 adult & 1 child to Farmer Gows
- £25 voucher for Sprouts Playbarn
- Entry for 2 adults & 1 child to Studley Grange Butterfly World and Farm Park
- A Cheeseboard from Fieldfare Cheese
- A Family ticket to Empire Cinema
- A game for 2 players at Clue HQ (Live escape rooms)
- A £10 voucher to spend at Tim’s Baguette and Grill Bar, Swindon
- A sleepover arranged by Dreamy Little Events
- A festive balloon filled with chocolates from Balloons by Niche
The competition is running through till Christmas Eve.
December 2020 we presented you with the PLJ family interactive Christmas light show Covingham, Swindon.
On a foggy, cold but crisp Swindon evening I wrapped up my daughter, bundled her in to the car and headed out to take photos of festive decorated houses in Swindon. Armed with a clip board, pen and a list of the house I’d seen on Swindon Facebook groups, we were excited about what we were going to find.
The PLJ Christmas light extravaganza
When we arrived near Paul, Lou and Jorja’s house, we could see the shining beacon of Christmas joy from down the road. Our breathe was taking away as pull up outside and we instantly felt a bit emotional, like a wave of pride for the Swindon people. Before us was the results of a year of planning, ambition and dedication to cheering up neighbours, visitors and probably people living on Mars!
Click on photo to enlarge
Paul, Lou and Jorja came out (socially distancing) and stood staring with us at this gloriously festive lit up the house, with so much pride. My daughter Bethany, armed with her donation, read the sign on display.
‘PLJ interactive Christmas light show. Please donate if you can all money raised will go to Children in Need. We hope you enjoy the show. Paul, Lou & Jorja.
Choose your own show. 1. Blue button to choose the show. 2. Red button to play a show. 3. Stand back and enjoy the show’.
And that we did, watching awe as the music started and the lights danced in time to the festive tune. As an eight-year-old would, she did this a few times and was treated to music and light extravaganza shows with Mariah Carey ‘All I want for Christmas’, a Frozen 2 song and more. We were at the house for quite a while as others came to watch. All had seen the house on Facebook, put the address into their phones and arrived with their donation for Children in Need, before watching this splendid treat.
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